What is perfect settings for a lovely Portrait Shot

[naford]

Hi,

Newish to photography, just wondered is there a secret recipe to perfect portraits ?

F2.8
Shutter speed to match it
F50mm ? 75mm ?

As you can see, not really sure, but thought is it just a suck it and see or is there some science already proven behind this ?

Cheers !

[Benji]

Hi,

Newish to photography, just wondered is there a secret recipe to perfect portraits ?

Cheers !

Yes. Perfect lighting, perfect exposure, perfect white balance and a willing subject.:)

You can use just about any camera setting you like, but most portraits are done using faster shutter speeds as opposed to slower ones because of the risk of blur caused by either subject movement or camera movement. Aperture selection is based on the light source. I use studio lights for about 75% of my portraiture which means rather small apertures because my lights were manufactured for film and are powerful. Powerful lights means small apertures. Below are a couple of recent portraits of Frannie a class of 2010 high school senior girl. One in my indoor studio, the other in my outdoor studio.

Benji

[naford]

They are really lovely shots Benji, really - very crisp/sharp. What is the ideal focal length to work on if you don't mind me asking and what camera equipment did you use, more lens wise than lighting wise ?

[Benji]

They are really lovely shots Benji, really - very crisp/sharp. What is the ideal focal length to work on if you don't mind me asking and what camera equipment did you use, more lens wise than lighting wise ?

I use a mid telephoto lens (80 to 120mm) for just about all of my portraiture when possible. Shorter lenses tend to distort whatever is closest to the lens (like noses) while longer lenses introduce their own distortion and they require lots of room.

For the above shots I used a Canon 30D and a 28-105 Canon "L" zoom lens.

Ben

[Ernst-Ulrich Schafer]

Very nice Ben! Ernst

[RDKirk]

Hi,

Newish to photography, just wondered is there a secret recipe to perfect portraits ?

F2.8
Shutter speed to match it
F50mm ? 75mm ?

As you can see, not really sure, but thought is it just a suck it and see or is there some science already proven behind this ?

Cheers !

The ancient Greek philosophers of aesthetics believed there was science behind art, and to the consternation of a lot of neo-nihilist artistic thought, anthropologists and psychologists are proving that the ancient Greeks were right.

Here is a good site to peruse for some posing information: http://www.lumitouch.com/benstudiotutorial/rules.html

Don't fear small apertures--learn to integrate backgrounds both compositionally and thematically into your portraiture. The art of environmental portraiture uses the subject's environment to give us information about the subject. In many ways, environmental portraiture a superior form of portraiture because it does tell us so much more about the person.